Yesterday when I logged into ATS they posted a warning that scared the crap out of people. The way it was done was to shock people but had they read the page they would have seen it was a "What If" scenario of what COULD happen if SOPA is allowed to pass

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/ATS_SOPA.png)

Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA

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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Now before the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who requests the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 pieces of music or movies within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws especially against foreign websites. They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to buy illegal prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. Opponents say that it infringes on First Amendment rights, is Internet censorship, will cripple the Internet, and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech.

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on SOPA on November 16 and December 15, 2011. The Committee is scheduled to continue debate when Congress returns from its winter recess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

We need to find and sign as many petitions as we can against this. If it passes it will mean the end of the Internet as we know it and we won't be able to post half the stuff we do without it being shut down, despite the care we take to ensure proper citation.

In case you think this will not effect things... I looged on to Open Minds Forum today and saw this...

Facebook has acted to stop the spread of a new variety of malicious software that has stolen login details from 45,000 mostly British and French users.

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The Ramnit worm has been spreading since April 2010, but was only recently adapted to target Facebook details, according to computer security experts. It was previously used by cyber criminals to steal login credentials for other services, including online banking.

This call to arms, issued by hacker activist Nick Farr, is the rallying cry behind a new plan to launch satellites into space to prevent Internet censorship.

Farr, a spokesperson for the Germany-based Chaos Computer Club, outlined the group's mission at this week's Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, the BBC reported. Calling for an "uncensorable Internet in space," Farr outlined the CCC's Hackerspace Global Grid, a project that also will involve setting up low-cost ground stations to track and communicate with the fast-moving satellites.

Organizers of a project called the "Hackerspace Global Grid" want to launch a network of small, low-orbiting satellites in order to facilitate Internet access that can't be blocked by government censors. The network would also include an array of base stations around the world. The project's developers are excited, but doubters say it's not going to fly.

If you’ve been hanging around my corner of Forbes at all, you’ll know that I’m virulently anti-SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) as its broad interpretation of copyright law could lead to the ultimate destruction of my own personal site that I use to make a living. On a larger scale, it could also be responsible for the downfall of the entire internet.

SOPA is terrible—it threatens the existence of the internet we know and love. You can call one of the dozens of companies backing it and give them a piece of your mind. Or, try the White House.

Using the White House's official "We the People" petition tool, over 34,000 people have expressed their rightful opposition to the bill. Most online petitions are sad and futile, but WhiteHouse.gov petitions often receive official responses from the administration—so let's hop on this one together. Ask Obama to veto SOPA. [White House via BuzzFeed]

Sign This SOPA Petition to Get Obama’s Attention (http://gizmodo.com/5870405/sign-this-sopa-petition-to-get-obamas-attention)

Congress is about to pass internet censorship, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. We need to kill the bill to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.

Go To a Town Hall

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the internet censorship bill on Tuesday, January 24th, and unless we can find 41 senators to block the vote, it is going to pass. Will you meet with your senators during the January recess and ask them to vote it down?

No in this case it was SLANDER that had several complaints to Proboards. I also had to deal with a personal issue at the new forum "The Outpost". It involved me making a complaint to vBulletin. The offending post and my posts were deleted so I will not push the issue there but the slander continues unabated at Alien Scientist

People forget that while a personal opinion on someone is fine, that just because you hide behind an avatar does not make out right slander using a persons real name alright.

Proboards had 9 complaints and shut it down. The other forums are using vBulletin which has similar libel and slander clauses

That is all I will say for now until I see the actions taken The Outpost... Doc locked the thread and deleted the posts right away. I have the originals saved. I am sure he understands the seriousness of the situation considering what happened at OM

I will post more in the admin area but to show you what I am referring to, simply look at these two threads at Alien Scientist forum

i got some honor to see how american feddies run: my forum was erased by'em with stamp "illegal" & no the least explanation WTF :) if these funny bunnies are so desperately scared of internet, then, wisely to guess, whatever $hit like war is coming: 4 instance, China & Japan gonna have the $-free trading with each other -- no to mention, wrong manners are badly contagious: if ones could, why others are forbidden toward the same way.

We don't just have to worry about SOPA. The internet is up against a large scale assault with the NDAA now in effect, the Internet Killswitch, not to mention the plan going forward with Internet v2.0.

You are correct... SOPA is failing due to protest so the FBI is going back to old methods and anti piracy laws that have been on the books for decades... But now they are ENFORCING THEM

7 People Charged in Connection to Megaupload Site

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The federal authorities on Thursday announced that they had charged seven people connected to the Web site Megaupload, including its founder, with running an international criminal enterprise centered on copyright infringement on the Internet.

According to a grand jury indictment, Megaupload — one of the most popular “locker” services on the Internet, which lets users anonymously transfer large files — generated $175 million in income for its operators through subscription fees and advertising, while causing $500 million in damages to copyright holders.

New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html?_r=1)

Megaupload means MegaVideo and MegaPorn will also be down.

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Four of the seven people, including the site’s founder Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, have been arrested in New Zealand, the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday; the three others remain at large. The seven — who a grand jury indictment calls part of a “Mega Conspiracy” — have been charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy, the authorities said.

The charges, which the government agencies said represented “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” come at a charged time, a day after online protests against a pair of antipiracy bills being considered by Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House, and the Protect I.P. Act, or PIPA, in the Senate.

The indictment was handed down by a grand jury in Virginia two weeks ago, but was unsealed on Thursday, and stems from a federal investigation that began two years ago.

New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html?_r=1)

This is why ATS is so strict about posts of News media and why we too had to make strict rules.

Problem is despite warnings when a site gets big like ATS it is impossible to catch it all and if you make any money at all from ads or donations etc, then you have to be real careful

I will likely need to shut down my website for a while and go through every page one by one to make sure there are no issues.

I had one a few days ago.. someone got mad at a photo I used... without credit (though I had the link to it clearly below the image) When I checked why I missed that, turns out his original posting of the image had no name on it, copyright notice, nothing to ID it. So I simply removed the image and left the link...

But it is easy to happen. We can post a photo from some site only to find out later that the site you got it from was not the original. Takes a lot of work to determine original source and status in some cases

The INTENT of these laws is to stop real piracy, which IS causing prices to skyrocket for consumers, but the effect will be to trickle down to all.

There are programs out there that seek out plagiarism, and lawyers out there seeking randomly to make money. It only takes ONE

My wife is taking an online business course. Her submissions need to pass a plagiarism test before they accept it.

Copyright law was never to protect the artist... it was created to protect the publishers of books in England

I find it amusing (but sad) that people are saying copying videos, music etc is 'freedom of speech'

But here is what will happen soon... other sites like Scribd for example, will see the arrests and shut down, not wanting to face the charges. Scribd has a disclaimer telling uploaders NOT to upload stuff that is not free of copyright issues, but there are hundreds of works on scribd that clearly show they are copyrighted and NOT to be distributed

Now it is not hard to find out...

NASA, Military and Government sites are public domain and only ask courtesy to credit the source, but allow full copying and even sales (as in NASA photos)

Many alternative news sources clearly state that you may copy the ENTIRE article as long as its intact and clearly linked

News Media like the BBS have a 'Print document' option and that provides all links and source and I know BBC doesn't mind, but others do.

I usually write for permission to repost and very rarely get a no... and when I get a no, they usually say a section quote and link is acceptable

It is easy to write for permission... for every photo that is copyrighted there are 10 others out there taken by people who will let you use it ( in most cases ) Others allow a small web version with link to original. I usually avoid the ones where the photographer plasters a logo over the image... I know there is no point in asking for those :P

I am in the progress of going through my file database to make sure they are public domain... or have a link to the original source file instead... but I have over 6000 to go through. Most are public domain, but I need to make sure I don't miss one

Currently the rule of etiquette is if someone finds something they need to ask you to remove it immediately. But that will change. And if you know its copyrighted and post it anyway, you don't really have a leg to stand on.

Users are screaming that these sites are under attack and want to be able to keep downloading 'free' stuff, but they just want the goods, and don't care that the guy distributing the goods will go to jail.

Users are screaming that these sites are under attack and want to be able to keep downloading 'free' stuff, but they just want the goods, and don't care that the guy distributing the goods will go to jail.

:P Here's a real kick in the can for you... (Example) CNET Downloads:

http://download.cnet.com/windows/ (http://download.cnet.com/windows/)

On here you may do a simple search and find the tools to get nearly any sort of copywritten material, program etc. Including programs to download movies.

Now then it seems to ME that the parent company of this site has something fishy going on. :D

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CriticismIn 2011, CNET and CBS Interactive were sued by a coalition of artists (led by FilmOn founder Alki David) for copyright infringement by promoting the download of LimeWire, a popular peer to peer downloading software. [26] [27] Although the original suit was voluntarily dropped by Alki David he vowed to sue at a later date to bring "expanded"[28] action against CBS Interactive. In November 2011, another lawsuit against CBS Interactive was introduced, claiming that CNet and CBS Interactive knowingly distributed LimeWire, the file sharing software. [29]

In 1998, CNET was sued by Snap Technologies for its use of the snap.com domain.[30]

Logo of CNET 2008-2011, the original logo used from its inception in 1994 to 2008 is now in use again.In 2005, Google blacklisted all CNET reporters for an entire year [31][32] after CNET published Google's CEO Eric Schmidt's salary, named the neighborhood where he lives, some of his hobbies and political donations.[33] All the information had been gleaned from Google searches.

On October 11, 2006, Shelby Bonnie resigned as chairman and CEO as a result of stock options backdating scandal that occurred between 1996 and 2003. Neil Ashe was named as the new CEO.[34]

CNET's CEO and two other executives resigned [35] in 2006 because of a options backdating scandal which caused the firm to restate its financial earnings over 1996 through 2003 for $105 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission later dropped an investigation into the practice.[36]

CNET got in trouble[clarification needed] in 2007 after it was revealed by former Gamespot editors that CNET corporate staff had directed the firing of a Gamespot editor. Furthermore, CNET was involved in altering the strict editorial policies that Gamespot and CNET reviewing staff once had. Indeed, CNET was considered complicit in its support of products regardless of their quality.

Some software applications freely downloadable from the internet are also offered for download by CNET. Some of these "CNET versions" are actually wrapped inside other applications that install other pieces of software, for which the user has to specifically opt out, and the opt-out option is not clearly or immediately visible.[37]

Someone in the home of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a strong proponent of anti-piracy legislation, has been using BitTorrent to download pirated versions of music and movies, according to a French blog.

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The TorrentFreak blog used YouHaveDownloaded.com earlier this week to discover that IP addresses within Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, and Fox were listed as having downloaded pirated material from BitTorrent.

As an appreciative user of the internet, and Pegasus especially I will make every effort to follow the guidelines of submission,and hope that we can all do that. Lets get very familiar with the legal standards so that even if we have to take time out to comb through the pages and make sure it all is compliant,from here on out do our best to make sure nothing needs editingfrom here forward.

Apparently some of the cellar dwellers form Anonymous are not too thrilled about it.

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1.January 19th, 20122. 3.Popular file-sharing website megaupload.com gets shutdown by U.S Justice - FBI and charged its founder with violating piracy laws. Four Megaupload members were also arrested. The FBI released a press release on its website which you can view here: 4.http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/justice-department-charges-leaders-of-megaupload-with-widespread-online-copyright-infringement5. 6.We Anonymous are launching our largest attack ever on government and music industry sites. Lulz. The FBI didn't think they would get away with this did they? They should have expected us.7.

10.#OpMegaupload 11.The following sites were taken down in response to the FBI shutting down megaupload.com12.:) TANGO DOWN13. 14. 15.justice.gov16.universalmusic.com17.riaa.org18.mpaa.org19.copyright.gov20.hadopi.fr21.wmg.com22.usdoj.gov23.bmi.com24.fbi.gov

Uhhh, Ummm. ( now I know why people do that; it's because your brain is just like - I don't even know what the "politically correct" thing would be to say, even though I have lots I'd like to say that isn't. Haha! )

:-[ I used a Star Wars clip from Youtube on the first page of this thread (5th post) I don't even know what the legality of that would be. For that I'm very sorry... Please erase the "clip" that would further advertise the movie and contains poetically stated and artistically "shared knowledge".

Well now, the alphabet creeptoid gangstas don't like the little guy musclen in on there turf. The big gangstas want there cut and the megaupload kids probably said F off you thugs.

So why do we still see thepiratebay and demonoid still up and running. How did thepiratebay stay off the no internet fly list after being caught up in the scandalous alphabet gangsta sweep.

This, is how the new world order will treat the world, the same ones who stole inslaws promis software and pirated it to other nations after a back door was scribbled in by rogue agents. The same ones who sell guns and arms to other nations. The ones who its OK for them to do poop but don't you little people try it. The same ones who run child trafficking like the franklin case, the finders and so many more evil schemes to enslave humankind.

I emailed my state senator who was behind pipa and supported sopa. But then what does he care, he will be retiring soon from his position all setup for life.

The world is run by evil and that evil uses three letters to destroy others. Three letter gangstas, thugs and thieves.

This sounds like a full on nightmare! ive done theJAVA work as required Zorgon & i will read the fullthread on it and the implications.This sopo is new news to me so i will be reading thethread on that too.it sounds grim >:(

(Reuters) - Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation in its tracks on Friday, delivering a stunning win for Internet companies that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to kill the previously fast-moving bills.

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Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid postponed a showdown vote in his chamber on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA for short, that had been scheduled for January 24.

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Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation until there is wider agreement on the issue.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement.

(Reuters) - Some members of Congress switched sides to oppose antipiracy legislation as protests blanketed the Internet on Wednesday, turning Wikipedia dark and putting black slashes on Google and other sites as if they had been censored.

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Content providers who favor the anti-piracy measures, such as Hollywood and the music industry, were scrambling to win back public opinion and official support.

Wikipedia, the world's free online encyclopedia, shut down for a day. Google and others used the black censorship bars to draw attention to what had until recently been an obscure and technical legislative proposal to curb access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Megaupload founder's homes raided, $5M in luxury cars seizedBy msnbc.com staff and news servicesPolice in New Zealand on Friday raided several homes and businesses linked to the founder of Megaupload.com, a giant file-sharing site shut down by U.S. authorities, and seized guns, millions of dollars, and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

Police arrested founder Kim Dotcom and three Megaupload employees Thursday on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. Extradition proceedings against them could last a year or more.

(http://i45.servimg.com/u/f45/13/55/53/83/12012012.jpg)(L-R) Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and German national Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, are remanded in custody at the District Court on charges in a US copyright infringement investigation in Auckland, New Zealand, 20 January 2012. With 150 million registered users, about 50 million hits daily and endorsements from music superstars, Megaupload.com was among the world's biggest file-sharing sites. According to a U.S. indictment, the site, which was shut down Thursday, earned Dotcom $42 million in 2010 alone.

Although the company is based in Hong Kong and Dotcom lives in New Zealand, some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Virginia, and that was gave U.S. prosecutors jurisdiction to act.

New Zealand police served 10 search warrants at several businesses and homes around the city of Auckland.

I dont think they would sue all the users who downloaded something on megaupload, but it could be a way to, selectively, put people under pressure or even silence who are not aligned with the way of thinking of the government.

Some filesharing sites are reining in their services in the aftermath of the recent high-profile shutdown of Megaupload. FileSonic has disabled all file sharing functionality on its website, restricting access so that users may only download their own files.

Megaupload was a popular file locker service that allowed users to upload files and share them with other users. The FBI pulled the plug on the Megaupload website last week when seven of the company's top personnel were charged with conspiracy. The 72-page indictment claims that Megaupload willfully distributed pirated movies and other copyright-infringing content.

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RapidShare, which is one of the leading file locker providers, told us last week that they aren't concerned about a raid. According to RapidShare, legitimate hosting providers have nothing to fear—as long as they comply with requests from rights-holders and don't turn a blind eye to piracy conducted with their service.

FileSonic, which is another leading file locker provider, is apparently approaching the matter differently. The company disabled its sharing services entirely, potentially reducing its exposure to legal risk. The content hosted by FileSonic is no longer generally accessible to download. Users can only download files that they have uploaded themselves.

So you have no doubt heard about the insanity surrounding the shutting down of MegaUpload, particularly the wild story about how the file-sharing website's founder was arrested in high fashion. Well, this has all clearly spooked other file-sharing services, including FileSonic. If you go to its homepage, you're greeted by a message that reads: "All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally." Not only that, but Uploaded.to is no longer available for use in the U.S.

Wow. Do you think anyone else will fold in light of the ongoing witch hunt? And could a major player like Mediafire go under?

From the looks of this, laws dating back to 2008 are cited as the legalmeans in which these agencies are shutting down these sites, andconfiscating the properties...

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Google, Wikipedia, and the millions of Americans who joined last week’s protest against giving the government new authority over the Internet may have missed something: Federal agencies already have that kind of power, at least over websites registered in the United States.

Under a 2008 law called the Pro-IP Act, federal authorities can seize the assets of a company charged with copyright violations. The Justice Department exercised that muscle on Thursday, when it shut down one of the Internet’s most popular file-sharing sites: Megaupload.com, accused of distributing illegal copies of music, movies, and books.

A company’s assets include its Internet address, or domain name. Under the Pro-IP Act, the government can seize that domain name from organizations that violate copyrights as long as the online address ends in .com, .org, or .net. Those addresses are issued by a registry based in the United States and are subject to US law. http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/01/23/federal-government-has-power-shut-down-registered-websites/USiFgcGkNm46VoJTsho0LN/story.html

I just cruising around looking at what effect this latest shut down *via voluntary means* has caused. Certaintley a lot of talk, but new names have shown up... As though that was not going to happen??? ::)

When I see Newshost's shut down.... You know its this is very serious. And funny enough the largest independant ISP in Australia mirror's a Newshost for their clients, who also happened to design an interesting Network in Oz :D

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"

Techmemetechmeme.com/CachedYou +1'd this publicly. UndoMPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay ... the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News … .... UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. ... A popular “meat-market” smartphone app that spawned a sexual revolution in ...

This is insane & so unfair ! It cannot be aloud to Happen! this is like the end of the Internet as Iknow it, I won't jepodise sites I'm a member ofout of respect for the site owner a everyone elsebut i won't bow to these Internet sopa bullies either >:(

The US government dropped a nuclear bomb on "cyberlocker" site Megaupload today, seizing its domain names, grabbing $50 million in assets, and getting New Zealand police to arrest four of the site's key employees, including enigmatic founder Kim Dotcom. In a 72-page indictment unsealed in a Virginia federal court, prosecutors charged that the site earned more than $175 million since its founding in 2005, most of it based on copyright infringement.

As for the site's employees, they were paid lavishly and they spent lavishly. Even the graphic designer, 35-year-old Slovakian resident Julius Bencko, made more than $1 million in 2010 alone.

The indictment goes after six individuals, who between them owned 14 Mercedes-Benz automobiles with license plates such as "POLICE," "MAFIA," "V," "STONED," "CEO," "HACKER," GOOD," "EVIL," and—perhaps presciently—"GUILTY." The group also had a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls-Royce, and a 1989 Lamborghini. They had not one but three Samsung 83" TVs, and two Sharp 108" TVs. Someone owned a "Predator statue." Motor bikes, jet skis, artwork, and even 60 Dell servers could all be forfeit to the government if it can prove its case against the members of the "Mega Conspiracy."

The case is a major one, involving international cooperation between the US, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Canada, and the Philippines. In addition to the arrests, 20 search warrants were executed today in multiple countries.

Megaupload controlled 525 servers in Virginia alone and had another 630 in the Netherlands—and many more around the world

The MPAA doesn't have any doubts, though. "By all estimates, Megaupload.com is the largest and most active criminally operated website targeting creative content in the world," it said in a statement. "This criminal case, more than two years in development, shows that law enforcement can take strong action to protect American intellectual property stolen through sites housed in the United States."

OR could the reason have been because the RIAA was about to suffer a serious blow to their profits? ;)

MegaUpload Is Now Launching a Music Service Called MegaBox...

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Wednesday, December 21, 2011by paul There's another gigantic wrinkle in the MegaUpload drama. Not only is MegaUpload fighting tooth-and-nail against Universal Music Group, but they're now planning the launch of a cloud-based music locker, download store, and do-it-yourself artist service. It's called MegaBox, and it's already up in beta with listed partners 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi, and Amazon MP3.

Actually, this is technically a relaunch of an earlier concept, and a perfect re-stab at major label opponents. "UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings," MegaUpload founder Kim 'Dotcom' Schmitz told Torrentfreak this week.

Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.

As elliriem113 states the ACTA law now being passedIs kicking protests off all over the EU nations.I've just been watching it all on Russia today and peopleare not happy. This is all happening so fast. Where will it end?SOPA & now ACTA then this Internet kill switch that was talkedabout is just crazy. yes I understand people's rite to have therework copyright'd and protected but only so much can done by theowner of said content. people will always download stuff for free soI can't see a way of stopping this but these Internet laws are too muchTo soon IMO.

As if all this wasn't bad enough they are also calling for Pre-Crime snooping software to determine your hostile intents. >:( I wonder how the police will act when the software implicates our leaders? "It must be a glitch in the system." ::)

It's game over for the founders of The Pirate Bay, as the Supreme Court of Sweden declines to hear their appeal.

Jail sentences and stiff fines now appear inevitable for Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström, the founders of The Pirate Bay who were convicted of violating copyright laws in Aril 2009. At the time, Per Samuelsson, a lawyer for Lundström, described the verdict as "outrageous" and immediately announced that it would be appealed, saying, "This is the first word, not the last. The last word will be ours."

That prediction turned out to be somewhat less than accurate, however, as the final word actually came from the Supreme Court of Sweden and turned out to be nothing more than a rather anti-climactic "Pass, thanks." That dead-end at the Supreme Court means that the sentences handed down by a Swedish Appeals Court in late 2010, which reduced the prison sentences but dramatically increased the fines, will stand. The defendants can, and in at least one case will, take the appeal to the European Court of Justice, but that won't prevent the sentences from being carried out.

Torrent sites are running scared... in the light of Megaupload and Pirate Bay arrests

(http://i42.tinypic.com/jrv995.gif)2005 - 2012This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down. We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!

The Pirate Bay has confirmed that all torrent files being shared by more than 10 people will be deleted on February 29. The decision is causing a small panic among the site’s users, but in reality little will change as all files will remain available through magnet links. The Pirate Bay crew told TorrentFreak that this is merely a “step forward in technology” and confirmed that the site is here to stay.

For half a decade The Pirate Bay has been the leading BitTorrent site, but soon its users will no longer be able to download .torrent files.

The first step in this direction will be taken on February 29, the Pirate Bay announced today.

Instead of deleting all torrent files at once, the Pirate Bay crew will start with all files that have more than 10 peers. This is to guarantee that people will still be able to download less popular files, which tend to start slower through magnets.

While there are fears that this is the end of The Pirate Bay, nothing could be further from the truth. For users of the site the upcoming switch is expected to go smoothly.

People will be able to download all files as usual, but instead of using a .torrent file downloads will be initiated through a magnet link. The actual content of the .torrent file will then be downloaded from other people instead of the Pirate Bay’s servers.

Magnet links though are just links, they have no files associated with them just data. The links are an evolving URI standard developed primarily to be used by p2p networks. They differ from URLs, for example, in that they don't hold information on the location of a resource but rather on the content of the file or files to which they link. Technically, magnet links are made up of a series of parameters containing various data in no particular order. In the case of BitTorrent, they hold the hash value of the torrent which is then used to locate copies of the files among the peers. They may also hold file name data or links to trackers used by the torrent. You can check out the entry on Wikipedia for a more detailed technical description.

With magnet links, BitTorrent indexers don't have to store any file at all, just a few snippets of data leaving the individual client apps to do all the heavy lifting. In fact, magnet links can be copy-pasted as plain text by users and shared via email, IM or any other medium. For the indexer sites, the allure is clear, using magnet links makes it harder for them to be accused of any wrong-doing in court. Theoretically, magnet links should not have any disadvantages for the users over .torrent files either. It would also potentially make downloads faster as it would enable the clients to download from peers which have identical files but with different names, for example.

The video above depicts a police raid on the home of someone suspected of pirating music. It’s one of a number of raids conducted by a special copyright enforcement “strike force” set up by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The music industry couldn’t be happier.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) presented the honorary gold record to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and each member of the SECURE Strike Force for their unprecedented numbers of arrests and seizing of pirated music.

“Usually you have to sell a lot of albums to get a Gold record, but this is a great recognition for recovering thousands of forged CDs,” says Shurtleff. “These pirated discs represent lost jobs for businesses and lost taxes for state coffers.” . . .

“Those are real results,” said RIAA Anti-Piracy Executive Vice-President Brad Buckles. “On behalf of the major U.S. music labels, we are pleased to present Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of the SECURE Strike Force with honorary Gold Records as a token of our appreciation for all the hard work they’ve done to meaningfully address piracy on the streets of Utah.”

In an effort to boost the state economy, the SECURE Strike Force was launched in June 2009 to stop major crimes of music piracy, and the illegal aliens involved. Suspects have been undocumented residents charged with forgery, racketeering and piracy, but agents have also seized drugs, fake government documentation, and several thousand pirated movies.

Previous posts on the use of paramilitary tactics to enforce copyright law below.[/color][/size]

most of the posters are up in arms about loosing their 'right' to copy stuff from the net. :P While I do not agree with the way the current war on copyright is being handled, freedom of speech and copyright theft are NOT the same thing. So far all the cases that the police have been involved with are after those making money... Megaupload made $175 million on membership fees

The whole system is wrong, but one does have to look at both sides.

In THIS case of the UTAH Strike Force... after looking into the details of the real story, I whole heartedly support the action... as I said THIS CASE. This is not about the SWAT team kicking in the door of some kid pirating a few music downloads... and I can see why they took SWAT along for these Banditos...

Utah SECURE Strike Force Cracks Down on Pirated Movie and Music Discs

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Uploaded by utahag on Feb 14, 2011

A strike force aimed at stopping major crimes committed by illegal aliens has made Utah's biggest bust involving illegally pirated CDs and DVDs. The Utah Attorney General's Office SECURE (Statewide Enforcement of Crimes by Undocumented Residents) Task Force announced the results of the crackdown that resulted in the arrest of 6 suspects and the seizure of nearly 50,000 illegally pirated movies and music discs.

[youtube]uJ-34akvYBY[/youtube]

It is also about time that the police video tape their busts. At least in some cases it helps to bring out the real truth. Not sure why they didn't do this sooner :D

That doesn't mean that there are no bad cops or busts, but at least this time we get the real story

ILLEGAL ALIENS ripping us off yet again... I have zero sympathy for them... and on top of that even arresting them is paid for by us tax payers

Perhaps the old firing squads were not such a bad idea... bullet only costs 49 cents

Well their next step will be of course a mass scrubbing of the internet...Google and Twitter have already started.

Yeah they are all running scared. Youtube has been doing that as well... hundreds of videos coming up now with the "removed for copyright violation... user account suspended" notices

The flip side of that of course is that these YT film makers are just copying anything they think is cool and posting their videos based on other people's work to get popular and in many cases to get money from YT. If they actually had to create their own, there would be a lot less videos on YT :D

But the laws are written so that everyone need to be careful. I have a database of over 6,000 files.. most of them I am 100% positive are in the public domain, but I cannot be sure on all of them.

The weird thing about all this copyright stuff is that there is no clear cut definition.

A radio or TV station broadcasts a song or a film... its out there in the airwaves..Companies make tape recorders and video recorders so you can record a copy...

So that means you are allowed to make a copy or the machines themselves would need to be illegal. Otherwise what is the point? The FBI warning stresses "No COMMERCIAL copying" Software programs allow you to make a backup copy or copies to other computers in your possession...

So the problem is there is no way to know where the line is...

Naturally making many copies for sale is obviously theft...

But if you have a few friends over and play a movie CD that you have legally purchased... technically you are in violation because you are technically performing that movie thus robbing a theater of the ticket sale or robbing the store of another purchase. Giving friends a coy, same thing

This is why SOPA failed it is has not clearly defined the issue. At least congress saw that it was too broad in scope.

The really dumb thing is that copyright law was first introduced in Britain, NOT to protect the author/artist but to protect the PUBLISHER's profits

And that is why many artists and authors today are opting into the Creative Commons licensing.

But not all is bad news...

Supreme Court already ruled against ASCAP when they tried to make music downloads illegal. This is actually a very important case for the average downloader that has no criminal intent, but just wants the music to enjoy.

The United States Supreme Court kicked off its new term Monday morning by tackling issues such as FCC regulations, immigration and healthcare reform. The court however refused to review many arguments, which piled up over the summer, including a complaint from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

After losing a case in September (U.S. v. ASCAP) regarding copyrights for digital downloads, the ASCAP appealed that verdict to the SCOTUS claiming that, “Copyrighters must me compensated.” Additionally, the ASCAP noted that 390,000 members license music through this organization and must receive the proper loyalties for their work.

At issue was a violation of the Copyright Act (2009) which states that to perform a work means to recite, render, play, dance or act it either directly or by means of any device or process (Reuters). The court disagreed that the digital downloading of music violated any of these terms.

Reuters reports that U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli stated, “the appeals court's ruling was correct and comported with common understanding and sound copyright policy,” agreeing that digital downloading is not “a performance of work.”

In addition to the ASCAP case, the SCOTUS rejected over 1,800 appeals on Monday morning.

In the future of this technological age, the Copyright Act may very well be violated as the possibility of digital downloads considered to be a performance of work nears. Amid their handling more pressing issues such as strengthening the states’ power on immigration laws and healthcare reimbursement rates, it is comforting to know that the Supreme Court still maintains a standard of taste: a digital download does not constitute performance art.

There it is again... the "PERFORMANCE OF WORK" issue

But the really laughable thing on the internet today is that every New Service has those SHARE THIS STORY with Twitter, Facebook, Google, Dig It and what have you...

Kind of an oxymoron if you ask me :D

Here are a few of the headlines against ASCAP... seems some broacasdters are on our side

ASCAP & BMI - Protectors of Artists or Shadowy Thieves?http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/royalty-politics.htmlIndeed, ASCAP has been sued on mob-like charges numerous times, and in the important ASCAP vs. Buffalo Broadcasting case in 1980-82, ASCAP lost in ...

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers - Wikipedia ...http://en.wikipedia.org/.../American_Society_of_Composers,_Authors_and..."ASCAP" redirects here; it is not to be confused with ASGAP. .... During this period, ASCAP also initiated a series of lawsuits to recover the position they lost during the ... In 1981, ASCAP prevailed against CBS in an eleven-year-old court case ...

Connecticut Town Tells ASCAP, BMI, SESAC To Get Lost Over ...http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090625/0143055354.shtmlJun 25, 2009 – Connecticut Town Tells ASCAP, BMI, SESAC To Get Lost Over Royalty Bills ... In this case, however, our main source is The News Times.

It's Not Stealing, It's Sharing: The Most Important Legal Cases That ...http://blog.tunecore.com/2011/09/its-not-stealing-its-sharing.htmlSep 1, 2011 – In a subsequent action, ASCAP also lost its case against DMX. ASCAP's fees were reduced below those set by the BMI rate court. Both cases ...

Supreme Court Denies ASCAP Appeal | Music News | Rolling Stonehttp://www.rollingstone.com/.../supreme-court-denies-ascap-appeal-20111...Oct 4, 2011 – ASCAP lost the case in September of last year, but the performing rights organization had hoped to overturn the ruling in order for its clients to ...

Everyone wants to use cool photos to illustrate their webpages, me included. It breaks the monotony of just text in endless blogs...

Now it is actually very easy to find images on the web that are in public domain... just take a few minutes to check.

Anything from NASA and the military and most government agencies, barring cited exceptions, are in the public domain because tax payers already paid for them. This in most cases even allowes you to sell copies (example a calendar of NASA images) with no more than a due credit included under the image required.

Many artists are allowing you use of their images for your website with the following conditions.. a non printable grade web photo, clear notice of copyright owner and link to their work. Boris Valejo is a prime example of this. Smart man... his art is advertized free all over the net :D

His art has been around a very long time... brings out the true warrior in you :D

You can buy his art and that of Julie Bell (whom he taught) here;http://www.imaginistix.com/

So not everyone is so stuck up on copyright.

I see photography sites that allow you free web copies for non commercial use... and I see photography sites that plaster big copyrights over the picture... I can tell you which artist I am most likely to buy from or support :D

Then there is the cace of the Museums. When they started to photograph their art and objects and publish them on their websites, they naturally wanted to have copyright.

But the courts ruled against them, citing that simply taking a photograph of art or objects that are in the public domain already does NOT constitute a new copyright

Good thing, otherwise if you took picture of a statue and put then on your trip blog, the maker of the statue might sue you for copyright :P

This applies to lists and catalog images as well... you cannot copyright a list or photo of an item

Here is the big case that set precedence

Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.

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Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999), was a decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright in the United States because the copies lack originality. Even if accurate reproductions require a great deal of skill, experience and effort, the key element for copyrightability under U.S. law is that copyrighted material must show sufficient originality.

Short of cutting off the internet, nothing is going to stop file sharing no matter how much legislation they try and throw at the problem. Build a better mouse trap and along comes a better mouse... ;D

Interesting article about the next generation internet protocol dubbed "Tribler"...

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The never-ending war between copyright holders and online pirates just entered a new phase. However, this time hackers are armed with the ultimate weapon that may grant them victory. The new software called “Tribler” is the new weapon in the battle for Internet liberty and does not need a website to track users sharing torrent files.According to The Raw Story, it is a “peer-to-peer network protocol that enables computers to share files with thousands of others.”For many this could be the solution movie and music pirates have been waiting for. Essentially it leaves no accountability for website owners.

So they have now made it possible for you to reprint the ENTIRE article to your own website for FREE so long as you leave their ads in place

Its called iCopyright

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/WP_001.jpg)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/WP_002.jpg)

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/WP_003.jpg)

I guess this is the Washington Times response to this mess created by AP (Associated Press)

AP Goes After Bloggers For Posting Article Headlines And Snippets

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from the you're-going-to-lose,-badly dept

Last fall, the Associated Press claimed that it was ready to change to face the new internet world -- and that meant not just being a gatekeeper, but joining in the conversation. As we noted at the time, though, AP execs said all that, only to immediately follow that up with plans that looked like it was trying to become a new type of gatekeeper. It didn't help that the company had also just sued VeriSign's Moreover division for linking to AP stories along with a title and a tiny excerpt. That sort of thing is clearly fair use -- but the AP doesn't seem to think so.

And, now, it's expanding its target list. Rather than just going after the big aggregators (surprisingly, Google settled), it appears that the Associated Press is going after bloggers for merely posting a linked headline and a tiny snippet of text from the article. In this case, Rogers Cadenhead informs us that the AP sent 7 DMCA takedown notices last week to his site,

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On the face of it, it's nearly impossible to see how this isn't fair use, even though an AP representative insists it's not:

The use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few sentences only. This is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of "fair use." AP considers taking the headline and lede of a story without a proper license to be an infringement of its copyrights, and additionally constitutes "hot news" misappropriation. - AP

Hopefully, they won't send a takedown notice for quoting that. This is pure bullying on the part of the Associated Press, and a clear overstepping of its legal rights

Associated Press Digs Its Own Grave Deeper; Wants To Create Its Own Fair Use Rules

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from the that's-not-how-it-works dept

On Friday, the story about the Associated Press threatening a blogger for using short snippets of AP stories with links back to the original as somehow being copyright infringement got a ton of attention. It was a clear case of the AP overstepping its bounds -- which goes against everything the organization claimed it would do. As more and more people complained, the AP figured it needed to do something to respond to the complaints -- though, it's choice of somethings proved rather ill-conceived.

iCopyright Sues AP... Saying It Didn't Promote The 'Pay Up To Quote 5 Words' Service

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from the isue dept

You may recall, a couple of years back, the Associated Press got a ton of negative attention for threatening bloggers who "quote too much" of AP articles. Soon after that, we were among those who noticed that the AP had a deal with a company called iCopyright, which seemed to suggest that "fair use" quotes were limited to four words or less. After that, rates started at $12.50 to quote five words.

he book download portal Library.nu and cyberlocker ifile.it appear to have ‘shut down’ voluntarily after a coalition of book publishers managed to get an injunction against the two sites. According to the complaint, the sites offered users access to 400,000 e-books and made more than $11 million in revenue in the process.

libraryDuring the past week users of the popular book downloading portal Library.nu started to notice that the site no longer carried links to files.

Today delivered another surprise when the site suddenly began redirecting to Google books.

Initially it was unclear what motivated the site’s owners to take these drastic actions, but a statement by a coalition of the world’s largest book publishers including Cambridge University Press, Harper Collins, Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, seems to have cleared up the mystery.

The publishers obtained an injunction against Library.nu and the cyberlocker ifile.it from the regional court in Munich. They claimed that both sites were operating an unauthorized “internet library” that made available more than 400,000 high-quality e-books. In addition, the publishers said the sites made $11 million in revenue.

Better get your torrent fix on the piratebay. Swedish cops are going raid the pirates servers and take em down. This just leaked, warrants prepared and the pirate knows its coming.

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Swedish authorities have reportedly secured warrants and are planning to raid The Pirate Bay. Unnamed Pirate Bay team members speaking with TorrentFreak claim to have learned that the raid is currently being planned by Swedish police, and they expect the operation to target Pirate Bay servers and the site’s new .se domain. Law enforcement officials in Sweden first raided The Pirate Bay in 2006, and the company’s founders were eventually sentenced to jail and forced to pay millions in fines. The service remained online, however, and it is still operational today. “The Swedish district attorney Fredrik Ingblad initiated a new investigation into The Pirate Bay back in 2010. Information has been leaked to us every now and then by multiple sources, almost on a regular basis. It’s an interesting read,” The Pirate Bay said on its blog. “We can certainly understand why WikiLeaks wished to be hosted in Sweden, since so much data leaks there. The reason that we get the leaks is usually that the whistleblowers do not agree with what is going on. Something that the governments should have in mind – even your own people do not agree.”

fROM THE PIRATEBAY BLOG

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New TPB investigation leakedTPB is not hosted in -insert country here-, as far as we know. "As far as we know?" you might ask! Yes. TPB is set up in a very special way to make sure that it will stay up. This means that noone really knows exactly where the servers are, but we've made sure to stay out of the United States of Arrogance and some other countries where the governments do not like free speech.

The only box someone could find is the one in the front, that needs to be public. We have multiple of those, scattered like diarrhea around the world. They contain no storage device, no graphics card. Only a network cable, a cpu and memory. Being nice people, we've put small easters egg into each box though, for the hard work put into finding that public machine! Nothing dangerous though, just funny.

Even though this means that TPB can never be pin-pointed to a certain country, the Swedish district attorney Fredrik Ingblad initiated a new investigation into The Pirate Bay back in 2010. Information has been leaked to us every now and then by multiple sources, almost on a regular basis. It's an interesting read. We can certainly understand why WikiLeaks wished to be hosted in Sweden, since so much data leaks there. The reason that we get the leaks is usually that the whistleblowers does not agree with what is going on. Something that the governments should have in mind - even your own people does not agree.

Since our recent move to a .SE domain the investigation has been cranked up a notch. We think that the investigation is interesting considering nothing that TPB does is illegal. Rather we find it interesting that a country like Sweden is being so abused by lobbyists and that this can be kept up. They're using scare tactics, putting pressure on the wrong people, like providers and users. All out of fear from the big country in the west, and with an admiration for their big fancy wallets.

We're staying put where we are. We're going no-where. But we have a message to hollywood, the investigators and the prosecutors: LOL.

Well I kinda figured these hacker groups were only there to spur on the new laws because none of them really did any sort of major damage other than release some emails, steal some account info, and a few DDOS attacks. There has not been ANY major blows dealt.

LulzSec’s FBI Informant Leader Hinted at CIA Connection

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Prior to the takedown of the hacker group LulzSec, the group’s leader – who turned out to be an FBI operative – told a reporter from the Guardian he may or may not be connected to the CIA.

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LulzSec was allowed to continue precisely for the reason Sabu mentioned – to provide the propaganda narrative required for a government push for draconian cybersecurity legislation.

Brilliant! Yes, They hyped the "threat," insisted it was a "problem," tried to contain the reaction... But so far have failed. And surely, They tried to offer the "solution," but failed at that too - for now.

Yeah, taking sites offline for a few hours hardly seems like a major threat to Me.

Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United States will soon launch new programs to police their networks in an effort to catch digital pirates and stop illegal file-sharing.

Major ISPs announced last summer that they had agreed to take new measures in an effort to prevent subscribers from illegally downloading copyrighted material, but the specifics surrounding the imminent antipiracy measures were not made available. Now, RIAA chief executive Cary Sherman has said that ISPs are ready to begin their efforts to curtail illegal movie, music and software downloads on July 12.

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Customers found to be illegally downloading copyrighted material will first receive one or two notifications from their ISPs, essentially stating that they have been caught. If the illegal downloads continue, subscribers will receive a new notice requesting acknowledgement that the notice has been received. Subsequent offenses can then result in bandwidth throttling and even service suspension.

US ISPs become 'copyright cops' starting July 12 (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/17/us-isps-become-copyright-cops-starting-july-12/#ixzz1pR7lCAQw)

Incorrect court order, issued to seize assets of the MegaUpload founder, is now "null and void." As a result, the New Zealand government may be required to return his belongings.

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New Zealand police filed for the wrong kind of restraining order--the kind that didn't allow for DotCom to have a court hearing prior to the seizure--and that was a mistake, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald.

A court has now ruled that the restraining order that enabled police to seize his assets is "null and void," and a review of the mistakes made will soon be conducted by New Zealand's attorney general, according to the Herald.

Get Ready for Flash Player 10.1 to Stream P2P Video to Millions, Swap Files BitTorrent-style

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But wait — Adobe’s got a few more P2P tricks up its sleeves. Developers will also be able to use Flash player 10.1 to build various other P2P applications right within the browser as well as within Air. One possible scenario mentioned includes object replication, more commonly known as file-sharing. “It’s a lot like BitTorrent”, explained Kaufman, adding that one could use this to “write a crazy file-sharing application” or to “replicate how Groove worked in Actionscript.”

“We’re starting on Facebook because it gives us viral reach,” CEO Simon Hossell told me. When the user wants to send a file to a friend, the friend gets a Facebook chat message with a link to the app and an explainer video; they install the app to get the file… and so it spreads.

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None of the data sent in the file transfer goes through Facebook’s servers, or Pipe’s servers for that matter. The app uses Adobe’s Real Time Media Protocol Flow (RTMFP) communication protocol, which was designed to let Flash or AIR apps talk to each other, to load the file into the recipient’s cache – the emptier the cache, the bigger the file that can be transferred.

Its beginning to appear Ellirium113, the war on file sharing is taking on the persona of the drug war. Make it illegal, allow it and bust it up where the big money is found. The same M.O. is found with prostitution and other phony criminal shenanigans where money is made in bundles.

(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/4/15/1334501774547/Sergey-Brin-008.jpg)Sergey Brin says he and Google co-founder Larry Page would not have been able to create their search giant if the internet was dominated by Facebook. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world". "I am more worried than I have been in the past," he said. "It's scary."

The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.

The 38-year-old billionaire, whose family fled antisemitism in the Soviet Union, was widely regarded as having been the driving force behind Google's partial pullout from China in 2010 over concerns about censorship and cyber-attacks. He said five years ago he did not believe China or any country could effectively restrict the internet for long, but now says he has been proven wrong. "I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle," he said.

Unlike other media, the internet in Russia, has developed largely untouched by the arm of the state. The protests have prompted many to wonder: is that about to change?

"It's too late to change things," said Anton Nossik, an internet guru. "Kids are now born into the internet and grew up in the internet. Like it or not, you have to embrace it."

That is the view of most internet observers in Russia: that it's too late, and too technologically complicated, to institute a China-style firewall. Yet the government is infamous for its attention to propaganda, and for the power of its suspicious spy services, and there are signs that it is seeking to boost its ability to control the internet.

Opposition bloggers and activists have already come under attack from the state, via prosecutors and the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor agency to the KGB. Some have been arrested, others called in for questioning. Websites have been shut by spurious means. But for now, it has been an entirely ad hoc approach.

"There is no strategy. They don't know what to do," said Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia's security services.

Current and former officials in the FSB and other security service have been at the forefront of calls for an internet crackdown. With Putin's return to the presidency next month, their power and influence is only expected to grow.

How open is your internet? An interactive map (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/datablog/interactive/2012/apr/16/web-filtering-censorship)

US and China engage in cyber war games (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/us-china-cyber-war-games)Exclusive: US and Chinese officials take part in war games in bid to prevent military escalation from cyber attacks

China's censors tested by microbloggers who keep one step ahead of state media (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/internet-china-censorship-weibo-microblogs)China may have the world's most internet-savvy government but Beijing has been struggling to keep a lid on bold social networks

How will the new law on cookies affect internet browsing?James Ball, with interactive by Chris Crossguardian.co.uk, Friday 13 April 2012

(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/13/1334320020123/Chocolate-chip-cookie.-008.jpg)Sadly, not this kind of cookie. Photograph: Getty Images

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We are being watched. The websites we visit, and the advertisers who promote products on those sites, are tracking our online activity, building a profile of where we go and in some cases what we do when we get there.

The computer on which this article is being written has no fewer than 2,901 tracking files (known as cookies) monitoring its online activity, from sites including Google (121 cookies), Amazon (14), the UK government (46) and dozens upon dozens of advertising networks. These track different things: some monitor which sites are visited, some track which adverts are clicked, others store and report back on preferences and favourites on different sites.

The Guardian site is no exception. Unless your browser's security settings are particularly high – and most users' aren't – the Guardian will have placed several cookies on your computer as you arrived at this article, and its advertisers will have placed a few of their own.

Given virtually every internet user will have hundreds of cookies, and other forms of tracking, on their computer, and only a small proportion will be aware of this fact, cookies present a privacy concern for visitors and site owners.

How will the new law on cookies affect internet browsing? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/13/new-law-cookies-affect-internet-browsing)

I have been using Ghostery but every new site I hit I have to disable new trackers

We have only one here at Pegasus right now... the Amazon Affiliate link. Its simply a l;ink to Amazon that if you shop Amazon anyway, if you do it via our link, Amazon sends us a few pennies as 'finders fee'

I have been using Ghostery but every new site I hit I have to disable new trackers

We have only one here at Pegasus right now... the Amazon Affiliate link. Its simply a l;ink to Amazon that if you shop Amazon anyway, if you do it via our link, Amazon sends us a few pennies as 'finders fee'

If they do start shutting down truth sites, I'm sure people will eventually revert back to a direct dial BBS type deal but more advanced. For those of you who might not be familiar with the term:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system)The Truth will always find it's way out there...

I'm sure people will eventually revert back to a direct dial BBS type deal but more advanced.

My Medieval life started via BBS systems I still have the Wildcat BBS software loaded :D

But back in those days you needed a separate phone line for each user... now that problem can be handled differently. Also there is newer software that any new BBS like system would be much more efficient.

Also back then a BBS was usually local to your town. Now with internet phone service and unlimited long distance calling that too has improved

However, there was a BIG advantage to a BBS being local... you actually could get together with people of like interest (such as the Medieval recreation) because the users were all in the same town.

Today I get a lot of interest in our group, but they are all over the world so we cannot interact outside the web. End result is everyone stays in their little caves :D

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

"Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000."

Are you freaking kidding me, $87K and they are whining? I have had it with this instition of politics and resolve or so called resolutions. I went out and bought an over the counter remedy and installed the latest version of VIPRE 2012, But I still get "FBI is trying to warn you" Email crap all the time. I think it cast about $.12 too produce such an over the counter anti-virus software, and if my calculations are right, that is approx 725,000 copies of such an anti virus disc that could be available to the consumer's that have paid their fare share to our Gov facilities already. If they have a program readily available and created already, and are only getting it out to the people that are inquiring to this website they had posted, this is poor Money management and rather irresponsible tactics and expenditures on the Govs part once again.DHS is a funded entity by the US civilians, and this should not be happening with cyber fraud and even though other countries are not as adamant as we are here in the US about such Cyber Crimes, they should be aware and do the same as I suggested instead of relying on so called Gov too allow our freedoms being taken away over such a trivial number as $87K.My suggestion:Go to your local Computer store, inquire about purchasing Anti-virus software, then save your receipt's. They should be tax deductable for the remaining balance of the under writed cost of producing the necessary 725K that could be distributed. This way the Dept. of Homeland security gets their job done, and we as consumer's, tax payers and civilians can then say "Thanks for the warning and protecting me and my privacy." instead of "What hell you mean I won't have internet anymore, I did nothing wrong!" Scenario's.C'mon folks, we are trying to run an efficient country here, aren't we? Why does it take so ungodly long for these entity's of our Gov too figure out such simply planned ideology's such as the one I presented above?

My suggestion:Go to your local Computer store, inquire about purchasing Anti-virus software, then save your receipt's. They should be tax deductable for the remaining balance of the under writed cost of producing the necessary 725K that could be distributed. This way the Dept. of Homeland security gets their job done, and we as consumer's, tax payers and civilians can then say "Thanks for the warning and protecting me and my privacy." instead of "What hell you mean I won't have internet anymore, I did nothing wrong!" Scenario's.C'mon folks, we are trying to run an efficient country here, aren't we? Why does it take so ungodly long for these entity's of our Gov too figure out such simply planned ideology's such as the one I presented above?

Any advice for One who has no money, no credit, no bank account? And I do mean NO money. Income: 0, Food Stamps: $200 mo, virtually homeless (sleeping on friend's floor).

Read your last two posts here. What do YOU think that you should be doing? Linda

I have no idea. I don't know if I want to risk the FBI or the possibility I am infected. Was hoping to get some knowledgeable advice. So far, the advice has been don't trust the FBI. But wait for more advice. [shrug]

I have no idea. I don't know if I want to risk the FBI or the possibility I am infected. Was hoping to get some knowledgeable advice. So far, the advice has been don't trust the FBI. But wait for more advice. [shrug]

Greetings Sweet Thang, good morning to you.

Still working on that other story for you, many rabbit holes, starting with the premise that we, the people, are too stupid to fix it ourselves.

It does not pass the smell test and we are in the hunt.

What make and model of computer do you have and how much RAM do you have installed?

This one is easy as we be known in some circles as MacGyver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGyver)

Any advice for One who has no money, no credit, no bank account? And I do mean NO money. Income: 0, Food Stamps: $200 mo, virtually homeless (sleeping on friend's floor).

In the report Amaterasu, it said that it was mostly people that got infected that had home loans and other small time business transactions. I don't know if that pertains too you or not, but I would weather the storm, if for some reason it had hit your PC, and you don't have any protection at all, I would venture the Website provided, if it gets to too personal and you don't feel safe, I suggest getting a job and earning the Money to get it right. I have purchased the "VIPRE 2012" anti-virus software from Walmart, it was about $55 but it comes with life time virus protection and you can also use it for up too 6 different networked computer's or one's that you plan on using."Is there any reason too believe your are currently infected?" If not, I wouldn't be too concerned, I just personally believe it should be the safe guarder's from our gov too provide it free of charge, hell, if they would have done that from the beginning, would have been taken care of months ago, IMHO.Sorry I don't have better answers for you. Got to do what you got to do I guess.

I just read your plea and life story from your domain page you had created, I truly do feel for you, I guess I am baffled of why these Gaming institutions aren't hiring you either.I am not as near educated with such thing's as you are, but, if it really comes down too it, I am a softy, and beings your are such a computer whiz, maybe we can work something out with the remaining network cards I have too use on my current software VIPRE package. Don't usually do thing's like this over the Internet with people I don't really know, but I understand your situation and have been there myself, not too long ago at that. Well, thanks for your story and putting all that info up about yourself, it was a very humbling tale too say the least. Drop me a line and we will see where it goes from here, OK?With Respects,1Worldwatcher

In the report Amaterasu, it said that it was mostly people that got infected that had home loans and other small time business transactions. I don't know if that pertains too you or not, but I would weather the storm, if for some reason it had hit your PC, and you don't have any protection at all, I would venture the Website provided, if it gets to too personal and you don't feel safe, I suggest getting a job and earning the Money to get it right.

I think I am safe. [smile] About "getting a job..." I have applied to over 50,000 jobs since I was laid off over six years ago. I have to have a desk job because I cannot stand up more than 1/2 hour without pain, and 8 hours leaves Me unable to get out of bed the following morning. But I have not been picky. ANY job that I can sit at, and have the skills for, I have applied to - even a chicken plucker job at minimum wage! (A 20-something got that job...like most of the other jobs I apply to.)

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I just read your plea and life story from your domain page you had created, I truly do feel for you, I guess I am baffled of why these Gaming institutions aren't hiring you either.

It's a catch 22 unless One knows somebody: have to have experience to get the job, have to have the job to get the experience.

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I am not as near educated with such thing's as you are, but, if it really comes down too it, I am a softy, and beings your are such a computer whiz, maybe we can work something out with the remaining network cards I have too use on my current software VIPRE package.

I wouldn't call M'self a "computer whiz..." I can run most any software, given 1/2 a day to get the basics, and once built My own PC (when the 386 was the top of the line), but I am surely no programmer! LOL! Not sure what You have in mind, but if I can do it, I will!

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Don't usually do thing's like this over the Internet with people I don't really know, but I understand your situation and have been there myself, not too long ago at that.

I appreciate Your gentle spirit and empathy. Truly, I do.

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Well, thanks for your story and putting all that info up about yourself, it was a very humbling tale too say the least. Drop me a line and we will see where it goes from here, OK?

I for one welcome the crashing of my pathetically challenged dell laptop, which, although giving me great service for the last six months, has developed a nasty line on the screen issue, and is nearly impossible to read anything on a black background, so bear with me if I cant read half the words Im typing right now!Crash my pc, please, in the immortal words of that old guy...LOL!

Our government can throw the switch at any time, and what we need to do is establish a series of underground(not literally) ham operators with binary conversion modules that can transmit information, although very slowly, from town to town. If we go martial, we will wish we had, so instead of trying to figure how to keep our computers safe, why not go to the airwaves with a crypto-code based network of ham operators, trading important info with waht basically amounts to morse code.It might seem a primitive idea, now, but when you have NO method of communicating with even your neighbors, due to martial law, youll wish youd joined the fold earlier.They can take our wired devices, and shut down the cell towers, but to scramble ham frequencies with any effectiveness, is far too expensive and resource taxing for them to really do it.

I think Amaterasu has the right idea with robots, and if we could hybridize them to integrate ham radio into their software framework, they could become our communication devices as well.

ROBOT RADIO! WRBT the only way to talk to your neighbors through the fallout, and the bullets flying from our fine servicemen as they kill their own in the behest of our fearless lizards...I mean leaders!LOL!

We would, once again, feel like TT Brown, firing up his first radio station. Ah, the spirals of technology!Our past becomes our future.

It was the one you provided with your profile here on Living moon, the lay out was quite user friendly!! LOL Good thing for me... All thumbs as they say, when it comes to PC intellectualism.. But, I have learned a lot since reverting from paper and pen too the Internet...lol

I think Littleenki is probably right about running some kind of binary program too and through HAM operator's. I have a friend that has been one for over 40 years now, and he has told me stories of how he has actually saved lives by tuning into distress and SOS calls via transmitter. My friend swears by it as well Littleenki, so it must mean something coming from him and now you.

Amaterasu, did that website for anti virus software that Zorgon sent you work? Or was it a pay site? Just curious, know a lot of people that probably could use such a site , if it was free of charge. Still don't like software downloaded from a website, much safer having a program disc in your hand, if you ask me...

Our government can throw the switch at any time, and what we need to do is establish a series of underground(not literally) ham operators with binary conversion modules that can transmit information, although very slowly, from town to town. If we go martial, we will wish we had, so instead of trying to figure how to keep our computers safe, why not go to the airwaves with a crypto-code based network of ham operators, trading important info with waht basically amounts to morse code.It might seem a primitive idea, now, but when you have NO method of communicating with even your neighbors, due to martial law, youll wish youd joined the fold earlier.They can take our wired devices, and shut down the cell towers, but to scramble ham frequencies with any effectiveness, is far too expensive and resource taxing for them to really do it.

I think Amaterasu has the right idea with robots, and if we could hybridize them to integrate ham radio into their software framework, they could become our communication devices as well.

ROBOT RADIO! WRBT the only way to talk to your neighbors through the fallout, and the bullets flying from our fine servicemen as they kill their own in the behest of our fearless lizards...I mean leaders!LOL!

We would, once again, feel like TT Brown, firing up his first radio station. Ah, the spirals of technology!Our past becomes our future.

Ouch, must...get....coffee!Littleenki

The fact of the matter is we are dealing with multiple issues:

-Governments that insisted OS developers leave in "Back-Doors" to enable spying-Conterfeit components & software-A population willing to use the exploits to their own benefit-Ramping up government spying programs which = more back doors etc.

Had the developers been allowed to create a secure system from the beginning some (not all) of this would not be an issue today. So in a sense the government sort of brought this on themselves because no one was really ALLOWED to create something 100% secure. They always had to have a way to break into the system. EPIC FAIL!

-Governments that insisted OS developers leave in "Back-Doors" to enable spying-Conterfeit components & software-A population willing to use the exploits to their own benefit-Ramping up government spying programs which = more back doors etc.

Had the developers been allowed to create a secure system from the beginning some (not all) of this would not be an issue today. So in a sense the government sort of brought this on themselves because no one was really ALLOWED to create something 100% secure. They always had to have a way to break into the system. EPIC FAIL!

How true, Ellirium, how true!If I could buy a computer with no back doors I would buy ten. We really are a strange society of odd folks. The way we shoot our foot off, to spite our leg, is nominal behaviour for our ruling classes, and most of their cronies, yet I guarantee, if no way to spy had been interspersed with our software and web, the internet would already be shut down, as most of the hackers who make a big splash are sponsored by the governments to begin with.

Here, young man, we put a thorn in your eye, but if you pull it out, your brain will leak out, sorry...

Little guys get places and send out viruses and worms, but it's the PWB that do the dirty deeds of a humanity who loathes it's own privacy. How can we ourselves have any privacy, if we dont let anyone else have it? Make their software watch them, that's how!

I look at the processes in task manager daily, and wonder...wtf is a dgrhstcfnvl.exe?If I knew, Id hit end program, but since there isnt any proof it does what they say beyond a definition on google search, I cant because it might crash my computer!

Spyware...dont get me going on that one, as it's a pain in the butt just keeping it off my blog comments. Thannks Akismet!

And now with the open source revolution beginning, we are destined for the battle of our lives......the battle to not become the uninformed society we are today, once again, over some leaders douchbaggery, and some lizardly dealings in our nations capital. A fight to make it so "out there" they cant stop it!

The true WAY is to share, and when the human race relearns to do that again across the board, we'll be fine. Our greed for our own needs has become our downfall....I need an Escalade, I need a new Speedboat, I need a new pair of 800 dollar sunglasses so I can look like my hero on tv!

WOW, we are a pathetic bunch of materialistic nimrods!

I personally think the internet has been propped up and repainted so many times because it was always meant as a spying tool for the PTB, and if youve ever heard of a collective concious, it's the same thing for them, with all of our thoughts and hopes placed upon the web's rippling waters.It is now the ultimate info gathering method, with all of us who use it as the brains, and the PTB as the scalpels.

They gave us the power to destroy their world order through our daily lives when the web came along, yet we used it to saw off our own toes. And now we are bleeding to death from the bottom up.

Back it up, write it down, take the papers, and run from town!

Fire up the ham, and get'er done as Larry the cable guy would say. Well, the cable IS going away soon, Larry so thanks for the advice!

this kind of thing has been going on for a long time already. back when i ran a dune roleplaying writing forum/website, i made a dune encyclopedia section, and created a graphic for it that was clickable. the graphic was based on the description of leto's library archives in the dune encyclopedia (no images were listed, it was just my theory of how it might have looked based on the description). the compiler of the official encyclopedia, had an attorney contact me with a warning that if i didn't remove it, he would sue me.

of course, i removed it right away but contacted the compiler of the encyclopedia to ask him how something that was merely my interpretation of the information, could stand up in court. he told me: "that's not the idea. just the fact you will have to fork over the fees to retain a lawyer, will most likely cost you more than its worth to have it posted on the internet. whereas i have the resources. you have to decide if it's worth it to you. that's an expensive website addition if it costs you 40 thousand in lawyer fees." i said, "i see your point." lol

we became friends after that though and i was always careful to verify how much data he considered usable. the issue was that the fans of dune wanted the encyclopedia to be reprinted as it had gone out of print. however the author of the dune series (frank herbert) had died and his estate and copyrights on the books and related dune materials, had passed to his son, who didn't like the dune encyclopedia guy and refused to republish the encyclopedia. the encylcopedia guy was afraid more and more data from it would be printed on the web and soon there would be less and less requests for a reprint.

i saw his viewpoint on it, and made sure to restrict the information to only stuff that was already available on the net from sites he had approved . it was kind of sad cause many of the people who worked on the encyclopedia, were counting on royalities from its sales to help them survive in their waning years. and fans really wanted a reprint so they could have their own copy. they even generated a petition and sent it to all applicable parties, including the publishing house to show the intense interest, but it was all in the hands of the inheritor of the copyright and he refused.

the encyclopedia compiler has since died. he was already in his early 70s at the time we first made contact. he was quite the scholar.

How true, Ellirium, how true!If I could buy a computer with no back doors I would buy ten. We really are a strange society of odd folks. The way we shoot our foot off, to spite our leg, is nominal behaviour for our ruling classes, and most of their cronies, yet I guarantee, if no way to spy had been interspersed with our software and web, the internet would already be shut down, as most of the hackers who make a big splash are sponsored by the governments to begin with.

It's money & power games. If there was no need for money, and equal power to ALL Individuals... This place would run FAR better!

I find it amazing how we can have govt. sponsored hacker groups and cyber warfare teams developing super trojans that can shut down specific PLC's yet they allow other hackers to wreak havoc to their infrastructure and military hardware. I am pretty sure they could tweak this virus to put an end to Anonymous, Lulzsec or any other type of threat if they wanted to. I believe this continues because they allow it to continue. >:(

Only need to look at the military complaining about chips imported from China containing additional properties that could allow it to spy or take control of various components. They insist on using imported parts from their enemies and then are suprised when it turns up in them. The head of cyber-security said the internet as it stood was "UNDEFENDABLE"....and they did it to themselves. :-\

Google releases ‘troubling’ data on government requests to remove contentU.S. leads the pack in sheer volume of requests

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Google pulled back the curtains on itself Sunday with the release of its latest “transparency report,” calling the results “troubling.”

The search giant’s report is the fifth of its kind, and details the number and kind of requests the company receives from governments around the world regarding the removal of user content.

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The U.S. government submitted the most requests in terms of sheer volume, logging 6,321 requests for Google to take down user data during those months.

Google fulfilled 93% of those requests, in stark contrast to some of the other countries listed in the report. Turkey, Hungary and Russia each had 0% of their requests satisfied by Google in the same time period.

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The search engine also restricted some videos in Germany after receiving a request that 70 YouTube clips allegedly violated the German Children and Young Persons act.

Well, we knew it would only be a matter of time for the PTB's to take over Cyber space as well Guy's. The reflecting pool is now disturbed and blaming the little people for their insecurities and their demise for the freedom of information act, now soon to be monopolized by the forces that are so hungry for control, anything becomes fare game in their cross hairs.Oh well, we will "ALL" have to be more adamant and careful with what we post to "OUR" threads and "Direct Links" for sure, I hope :-\

Yesterday I had problems getting into my email account and my Amazon account. Both those accounts still had an older password that I haven't changed for a while

In both cases what happened was I couldn't log on. The email account was a simple password reset at the host level, but Amazon needed calling the technician as the email password reset didn't get through

Dear EarthLink Member,

We at EarthLink are focused on helping you protect your security online. We want to make you aware of a data breach that occurred at Yahoo earlier this week. Yahoo has confirmed that hackers obtained the email addresses and passwords for approximately 450,000 Yahoo users. If you use your EarthLink email address in connection with your Yahoo account, the hacker may have obtained your EarthLink email address and Yahoo password.

You can read about this Yahoo incident here:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/yahoo-breach-extends-beyond-yahoo-to-gmail-hotmail-aol-users/or you can use a search engine to search for "yahoo email breach" and choose an article to read.

If you have not done so already, you should change the password associated with your Yahoo account. We strongly encourage you to also change the password on any account that uses the email address and password that you use with your Yahoo account. You can change your EarthLink password through myAccount: https://myaccount.earthlink.net.

Yahoo confirmed Thursday that about 400,000 user names and passwords to Yahoo and other companies were stolen on Wednesday.

A group of hackers, known as the D33D Company, posted online the user names and passwords for what appeared to be 453,492 accounts belonging to Yahoo, and also Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, MSN, SBC Global, Verizon, BellSouth and Live.com users.

The hackers wrote a brief footnote to the data dump, which has since been taken offline: “We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat.”

The breach comes just one month after millions of user passwords for LinkedIn, the online social network for professionals, were exposed by hackers who breached its systems. The breaches highlight the ease with which hackers are able to infiltrate systems, even at some of the most widely used and sophisticated technology companies.

Marcus Carey, a researcher at Rapid7, a security company found that among the data were some 106,000 Gmail e-mail addresses, 55,000 Hotmail e-mail addresses and 25,000 AOL e-mail addresses. Those e-mail accounts were not hacked; instead people had used their e-mail address as user names for a Yahoo service.

Sucuri, a company that checks for malware, set up a Web site, labs.sucuri.net/?yahooleak, that lets concerned users check if their account details were compromised in the breach.

Dana Lengkeek, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, said the compromised accounts belonged to Yahoo’s Contributor Network, and that fewer than 5 percent of the passwords posted were still valid.

The hackers claimed to have stolen the passwords using a hacking technique called an SQL injection, which exploits a software vulnerability.

“We are fixing the vulnerability that led to the disclosure of this data, changing the passwords of the affected Yahoo users and notifying companies whose user accounts may have been compromised,” Ms. Lengkeek said in the statement.

Mr. Carey said it was unclear whether Yahoo’s breach had been contained and noted that hackers could still be inside its systems.

Computer security experts recommended that Yahoo users consider changing their passwords to other sites, as hackers tend to test those passwords across multiple sites.

They were quick to chastise Yahoo for allowing hackers such an easy way into its systems. “Why haven’t organizations like Yahoo got it yet? SQL injection is a known attack,” said Mark Bower, a vice president at Voltage Security. “If what is stated is true, it’s utter negligence to store passwords in the clear.”

(Reuters) - More than 400,000 Yahoo Inc user names and passwords were stolen and published on the Web, putting other websites at risk as well, after hackers exploited a vulnerability in Yahoo's computer systems.

Yahoo breach puts users of other sites at risk (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/13/net-us-yahoo-hackers-idUSBRE86B0HT20120713)

Last month 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords showed up on a Russian website. Very recently, 450,000-plus Yahoo! usernames and passwords were published by a hacker group called D33Ds. On one hand, you want to think that Yahoo! is on top of its own cyber-security. On the other hand, you know its not. So, what do you need to do now?

First, change your Yahoo! password. This really is not optional. Yahoo! has been compromised. And, until Yahoo! says that they have found and corrected the security bug that allowed the hackers to access the username and password files, be ready. You may need to change your password more than once.

As you know, I am an advocate of strong passwords -- inconvenient, long, strong passwords.

Yahoo! Hacked: What You Need to Do Now (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelly-palmer/yahoo-hacked_b_1673886.html)?

When browsing the Internet, how safe do you think your information is? Before you answer, let me remind you about that time Sony was hacked and 77 million accounts were stolen. “Oh, but that was a long time ago,” you’ll say. “Companies are more responsible now.” You’re right, they are. Instead of 77 million, only 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords were leaked to a Russian hacking forum this month. Yay progress!

Unfortunately, these attacks are increasingly common and it seems you can’t go more than a few days without yet another data breach reported. Accordingly, the real headline here wasn’t the fact that LinkedIn got hacked, but rather the amateur methods they used to protect the one piece of information you use to identify yourself: your password.

LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm were all the victims of password disclosure this month, and all of them, astoundingly, provided next to no encryption. They had all been storing your passwords as unsalted SHA1 hashes, which these days is about as good as storing the passwords in plain text thanks to various pre-computation attacks. With this kind of negligence, it’s not surprising to see various lawsuits already being filed.

Whether you want to protect your personal email, your business training videos, or company information, trust that your information remains secure is important – and hard to come by. According to the Computer Security Institute, nearly half of the individuals surveyed had been the subject of at least one targeted attack.

We recently has an issue involving one of our members here and Skype. Everyone involved thought that member had gone crazy.... it seems we may have the answer..

Skype has confirmed that — under "rare circumstances" — parts of instant message conversations made over the chat service may be forwarded to an unintended recipient.

How devastating is this issue?

A Skype spokesperson didn't elaborate beyond a pre-written statement, but based on user comments in the official Skype support forums, we can piece together what happens if you're one of the unlucky few affected by this bug.

Let's say that User A and User B are exchanging instant messages over Skype today. Tomorrow, User A might log on and find a message from User C — one of his or her contacts — asking about something that was said in that conversation. The message User C received, without any action by User A or User B, would've been a line or two from the conversation the two had.

Scary, no? Just think back to the last few instant message conversations you've had and imagine what would happen if some random lines from it were sent to a random person on your or your conversation partner's contact lists. (Now that I think about my own conversations, I suddenly want to upgrade that "scary" to a "terrifying.")

I would love to change My Yahoo password, but Yahoo Mail is one of the sites that come back with a "certification" error when I try to visit with this pathetic Linux shell. Fortunately, I didn't use Skype as it made My system a bit wiggy. Haven't used it in a year or more.

Working on trying to install a full Linux version, but having trouble. Sooner or later, I will have things back to normal.

Apparently its a very stealth virus trojan point is it was loaded on GLP somehow I was just snooping about and BAM

Fortunatlely, I escaped narrowly! Unlike this poor soul...

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If I ever get my hands on the techno-nerd computer genius who wrote this little gem of a contagion, I'll first shake his hand impressed by his programming proficiency then bash him over the head about his inability to comprehend the havoc he's wreaking on unsuspecting and gullible idiots like me. I hope you're reading this, you little f**ker.

Well if the economy wasn't bad enough how about a FLAME type virus that targets the banks. My prediction...next it will hit the stock market if that is not already a part of this.

Gauss: Nation-state cyber-surveillance meets banking Trojan

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Gauss is the most recent cyber-surveillance operation in the Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame saga.

It was probably created in mid-2011 and deployed for the first time in August-September 2011.

Gauss was discovered during the course of the ongoing effort initiated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), following the discovery of Flame. The effort is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by cyber-weapons, which is a key component in achieving the overall objective of global cyber-peace.

In 140 chars or less, “Gauss is a nation state sponsored banking Trojan which carries a warhead of unknown designation”. Besides stealing various kinds of data from infected Windows machines, it also includes an unknown, encrypted payload which is activated on certain specific system configurations.

Just like Duqu was based on the “Tilded” platform on which Stuxnet was developed, Gauss is based on the “Flame” platform. It shares some functionalities with Flame, such as the USB infection subroutines.

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What is Gauss? Where does the name come from? Gauss is a complex cyber-espionage toolkit created by the same actors behind the Flame malware platform. It is highly modular and supports new functions which can be deployed remotely by the operators in the form of plugins. The currently known plugins perform the following functions:

Intercept browser cookies and passwords. Harvest and send system configuration data to attackers. Infect USB sticks with a data stealing module. List the content of the system drives and folders Steal credentials for various banking systems in the Middle East. Hijack account information for social network, email and IM accounts.The modules have internal names which appear to pay tribute to famous mathematicians and philosophers, such as Kurt Godel, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss and Joseph-Louis Lagrange.

The module named “Gauss” is the most important in the malware as it implements the data stealing capabilities and we have therefore named the malware toolkit by this most important component.

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Is there any special payload or time bomb inside Gauss?

Yes, there is. Gauss’ USB data stealing payload contains several encrypted sections which are decrypted with a key derived from certain system properties. These sections are encrypted with an RC4 key derived from a MD5 hash performed 10000 times on a combination of a “%PATH%” environment string and the name of the directory in %PROGRAMFILES%. The RC4 key and the contents of these sections are not yet known - so we do not know the purpose of this hidden payload.

We are still analyzing the contents of these mysterious encrypted blocks and trying to break the encryption scheme. If you are world class cryptographer interested in this challenge, please drop us an e-mail at theflame@kaspersky.com

How is this different from the typical backdoor Trojan? Does it do specific things that are new or interesting?

After looking at Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame, we can say with a high degree of certainty that Gauss comes from the same “factory” or “factories.” All these attack toolkits represent the high end of nation-state sponsored cyber-espionage and cyberwar operations, pretty much defining the meaning of “sophisticated malware.”

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Why were the attackers targeting banking credentials? Were they using it to steal money or to monitor transactions inside accounts?

This is unknown. However, it is hard to believe that a nation state would rely on such techniques to finance a cyber-war/cyber-espionage operation.

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What kinds of data was being exfiltrated?

The Gauss infrastructure was shut down before we had the chance to analyze a live infection and to see exactly how much and what kind of data was stolen. So, our observations are purely based on analyzing the code.

Detailed data on the infected machine is also sent to the attackers, including specifics of network interfaces, computer’s drives and even information about BIOS. The Gauss module is also capable of stealing access credentials for various online banking systems and payment methods.

It’s important to point out that the Gauss C2 infrastructure is using Round Robin DNS - meaning, they were ready to handle large amounts of traffic from possibly tens of thousands of victims. This can offer an idea on the amount of data stolen by Gauss’ plugins.

Wednesday morning's stock snafu had a familiar ring to it — mysterious volume in trades that simply could not have been made by a human comes surging out of nowhere, causing brief but acute market mayhem.

By now, many players on trading floors have gotten used to the disruptions that can come from the highly automated new world of high-frequency trading.

But that doesn't mean they like it.

"This algorithmic trading is kind of out of control," Phil Silverman, managing partner at Kingsview Capital, said as officials at the New York Stock Exchange tried to make sense of what happened. "It seriously hurts investor confidence."

SENuke Review – Senuke is a TOOL, a seo tool plus you really need to end taking Senuke Analysis in the event you don’t know regarding keywords plus SEO.

Right, you need to absolutely acknowledge which ranking significant up inside the various search engines may indicate big money along with a boost with the advertising advertisments. The most intriguing thing is the fact that most persons worried inside web advertising are using the same schemes. With SEnuke SEO software, you’ll be arming oneself with topmost tips which top web advertising experts employ with achieving with the best. With SEnuke SEO technique, you’ll have the completed formula, plus the web advertising is advanced. SEnuke is the full right all-in-one web plus associate advertising tool I’ve found.

Lots more here about breaking down defenses. Our lives just got more complicated

What all can these new robots do? Well they can even make POSTS once they get in...

Quote

This section of Rank Builder Review is to elaborate all the options that this so referred to as finest search engine optimisation automation suite contains. What does this link builder software deliver in order that it can be known as multi functional automation search engine marketing instrument? Let us see…

* Automated LinkWheel Creation – robotically register accounts, click the email verification links and submit your spun articles to top 15 net 2.zero properties (and rising).* Computerized RSS Feed Submission – mechanically create RSS Feed from a LinkWheels plus submit it with significant 10 RSS Feed directories.* Automatic Social Bookmarking – integrates with OnlyWire with regularly submit a sites with top 30+ social bookmarking service.* Computerized Profile Hyperlink Building – regularly register accounts, check the emails plus submit the hyperlinks with tons of of significant PR conversation board websites (you can even add a individual checklist of boards!).* Automated Captcha Breaking – integrates with Decaptcher plus Death By Captcha captcha breaking service for automated captcha solving.* Link Booster Function – enhance a hyperlink juices by robotically create an RSS Feed from your record of hyperlinks, submitting it with excellent RSS Feed directories plus integrates with Ping.fm for automated submission with 40+ social networking websites.* Stealth Function – help http proxies, password protected (private) proxies plus post spinning syntax.* Run Within the Background – you might minimize it throughout the submission procedure plus this program might run inside the background thus you can do different function found on the desktop.

And this is legal?

At the moment its manageable - we get about 5 to 10 a day spread out over the 24 hours but its annoying as hell and we are likely to miss the odd good member trying to sign on.

Hopefully there will be a solution so we don't have to make it even harder to sign up for those who really want to participate.

I can understand legitimate marketers looking for way to increase sales but THIS? Should round up all these jerks and bring back the Guillotine

Good evening! Something in the remote viewing section of the forum is being flagged as malware every time I go there. It actually opens up another page, some form of google security alert for content from a page called arkcode. Is this something others have experienced or maybe due to reasons listed at the top of the post? The antivirus software on my computer has detected nothing.

Good evening! Something in the remote viewing section of the forum is being flagged as malware every time I go there. It actually opens up another page, some form of google security alert for content from a page called arkcode. Is this something others have experienced or maybe due to reasons listed at the top of the post? The antivirus software on my computer has detected nothing.

Greetings:

We're on it.

Let's take a look:

Google:About 333,000 results (0.20 seconds)

WHAT ELSE IS ON THIS SITE?www.arkcode.com/This site may harm your computer.For 15 years I've studied the Bible Code to learn if it contains the site of the Ark of the Covenant. Why? Michael Drosnin's (1997) book, THE BIBLE CODE, ...

What is the current listing status for arkcode.com?Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 3 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?Of the 73 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 22 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2012-08-16, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2012-08-10.This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS13446 (NETZERO).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?Over the past 90 days, arkcode.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Next steps:Return to the previous page.If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.

Well if the economy wasn't bad enough how about a FLAME type virus that targets the banks. My prediction...next it will hit the stock market if that is not already a part of this.

Well I would say this virus is starting to rear it's ugly head...

Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week

Quote

A single mysterious computer program that placed orders — and then subsequently canceled them — made up 4 percent of all quote traffic in the U.S. stock market last week, according to the top tracker of high-frequency trading activity. The motive of the algorithm is still unclear.

The program placed orders in 25-millisecond bursts involving about 500 stocks, according to Nanex, a market data firm. The algorithm never executed a single trade, and it abruptly ended at about 10:30 a.m. ET Friday.

“Just goes to show you how just one person can have such an outsized impact on the market,” said Eric Hunsader, head of Nanex and the No. 1 detector of trading anomalies watching Wall Street today. “Exchanges are just not monitoring it.”

Seem as as is this is coming to fruition by the PTBS, they are going to rewrite the Privacy act to access all info that INTERNET correspondence can offer by way of out right personal invasion of everything going into and on the INTERNET via FB, Chat rooms and other facilitations we use as this medium grows over time.

Quote

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

Quote

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. (CNET obtained the revised draft from a source involved in the negotiations with Leahy.)It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Quote

Revised bill highlights

Grants warrantless access to Americans' electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. Only a subpoena is required, not a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause.

Permits state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans' correspondence stored on systems not offered "to the public," including university networks.

Authorizes any law enforcement agency to access accounts without a warrant -- or subsequent court review -- if they claim "emergency" situations exist.

Says providers "shall notify" law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell their customers that they've been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena.

Delays notification of customers whose accounts have been accessed from 3 days to "10 business days." This notification can be postponed by up to 360 days

Don't know how far these acts of secret decisions are going too go for our rights as American Citizens, not too mention our correspondences with in our WWW friends and contact lists. Makes me truly concerned for the near future of our right to Privacy, but then again, it is the folks like us that have been aware of these acts for some time now, but down the rabbit hole we are going for sure.

Looks like we have lost Deuem for now.... got this email from him a few days ago;

With the elec tion of the new g o v here, all url links with the word "For um" in it have been ban ned. I don't know if this is forever but I would guess so. They are stopping any activity they can not control. Now what fears they have, I don't know. As you know some for ums are very bad and talk about the worst of things.

All my friends with paid tunnels have the same problem. One with the lexis forum. It is also shut down.

Any back doors? with out the word for um. If not then it was a fun ride while it lasted.

By the way, this email site I use was also ban ned for new members. I only can get in because I had a password from before. I don't know if they will kill that also.

We are contacting you because we noticed that malicious codes were inserted into your files at http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Earth/Clouds/Iridescence_Cloud_001.jpg and also the domain thelivingmoon.com' is blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing. It is against our Terms of Service due to this we have disabled Website / CGI/ FTP service for your account.

We recommend that you (or your webmaster) go through each file and look for any suspicious looking codes. If you have a clean backup of your site, please consider wiping out all the files from your account and restoring the web site using your clean backup.

I suggest you that take the following actions to secure your account from further malicious attack:You need to submit a request for Google to remove Attack Page from your site.1. Sign in to Webmaster Tools with your Google account.2. On the Dashboard, select the site you want.3. On the Overview page, click Request a review and follow the instructions.

After this Google will review your website manually and, Once they will make sure that it doesn't host or distribute any type of Malware, they will remove the identification from search results and it will re-index it. Please visit http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=45432 for more information on getting his site de-listed from Google's malicious site list.

Please reply to this email, so that we can assist you further.

Sincerely,

Jerald DiazSupport Specialist.

I checked with google...

I went to google and checked... got this result

Safe BrowsingDiagnostic page for www.thelivingmoon.com

What is the current listing status for www.thelivingmoon.com?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 17 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2012-11-20, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

This site was hosted on 2 network(s) including AS29873 (BIZLAND), AS15169 (Google Internet Backbone).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, www.thelivingmoon.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

So why does globat say my site was blacklisted by Google?

After that the reinstated the site very quickly... WTF? Something is up that's for sure.

I removed that image file they listed but that was on the site for over 6 years... and I looked at my copy and see no malicious code.

Problem is they shut it down without warning the website, the forums and the FTP access.

Well if Deuem can't access forums and even has to split the word in an email to you and Google said there is no suspicious content on the forum site, then something or someone got in the back door and played dodgy.

The one thing that the OP in this thread reminds me of, is my conviction that the DHS and ICE are both unlawful, fundamentally fascist institutions. Americans should be ashamed of the fact that they are sufficiently complacent, that they are in turn willing to allow either of these two organisations to continue to exist. They not only need to be abolished; they never should have been founded in the first place.

Is this what your grandparents suffered and died against Hitler for, Americans? So that you could recreate his agencies 70 years later, in your own country?

Well if Deuem can't access forums and even has to split the word in an email to you and Google said there is no suspicious content on the forum site, then something or someone got in the back door and played dodgy.

No the Deuem thing is a China issue China has always blocked my website. But he found a proxy to get access. Now they have blocked that too. I am also blocked in Iran

Matrix from New Zealand reports he has been having issues all day on his comp and finally had to deleted Chrome... and clean up his compMe I am baout ready to blow up Fire Fox headquarters. Had issues getting worse and worse then just on a hunch tried Pale Moon (a firefox clone) and everything worked fineFilezilla also been giving me headaches uploading big files but switched to another FTP client an all works fineSomething is afoot

I was using my Skype to chat while I was Golfing on line, then I lost WTH and a few other contacts, I also have Chrome DL to my PC but never use it as a browser. "Wise to get rid of it Z?" As for Deuem, he hasn't EM'ed me in sometime now either, must be the Red Po PO at work there. I have an OTC Anti virus software put an my PC, it is scheduled for a weekly clean or update, maybe should schedule for every time scenario when I get on the PC. What you think Z?

I was using my Skype to chat while I was Golfing on line, then I lost WTH and a few other contacts, I also have Chrome DL to my PC but never use it as a browser. "Wise to get rid of it Z?"

When will you learn? Uninstall skype. Change your passwords.

STOP USING FLAMING SKYPE WILL YOU

It is not secure which is why it is not on my PC.

Try pidgin.

Also I think WTH was hacked probably due to your lack of security. Z and I had a request to delete WTH account but have ignored it. I said straight away that I bet he was hacked via your contact list being compromised and it isn't WTH. Surprise surprise you are still using Skype. ::)

You owe WTH an apology. WTH, if you are reading this then you need to change all of your passwords.

P.S. Better still, get rid of windows and install linux. Anyone who wishes to do this PM me and I will advise you based on what you use your system for. No more viruses, no more nonsense and your PC will work.

Why anyone would waste their breath with Google chrome is beyond me. Google is so intertwined with every acronym govt. agency and helps them to spy on you. You are choosing to adopt part of the problem and then wonder why things go *POOF*. For christs sakes they have been actively trying to block content such as that on this site for years, this is really no suprise that the effects are starting to be noticed. BUYER BEWARE!!. ::)

P.S. Better still, get rid of windows and install linux. Anyone who wishes to do this PM me and I will advise you based on what you use your system for. No more viruses, no more nonsense and your PC will work.

For those that like Chrome, they can use SRWare's Iron, made from the same source code base but without all the "bells and whistles" added by Google.

Or another chromium derivative if you insist on following ArMaP in using Window is Comodo Dragon.

Quote

Fast and versatile Internet Browser based on Chromium, with highest level of security!How to avoid online privacy leakage?Comodo Dragon provides privacy enhancements at lightning speedOwn a browser that will:

Helps you stay safe and secure Provides unsurpassed speed Friendly user interface to start with Customized plugins and add-ons No more crashes or frozen screens

http://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php

Comodo also make a very user friendly Windows Firewall.

I still prefer Firefox because it is so customisable. It is not the fastest, leanest or anything else. I can just make it do exactly what I want, even switch between proxies every couple of seconds if I wanted to. :P

I still prefer Firefox because it is so customisable. It is not the fastest, leanest or anything else. I can just make it do exactly what I want, even switch between proxies every couple of seconds if I wanted to. :P

I prefer Opera, it does all I want without the need to for add-ons or plug-ins. :)

The problem I have with Firefox is that it looks like it has some kind of memory leak, Firefox with 5 or 6 open tabs sometimes uses as much memory as Opera with 15 tabs opened.

From the tests I have seen on the web, Firefox has a smaller memory footprint than Opera but only without plug-ins. I think some Firefox plug ins or add-ons are badly coded and don't free memory correctly. That will probably explain why Opera gives you less problems as there are no third party plug-ins when you use it as it does all you need.

ETA: As I say, I don't have the memory problems with Firefox (I only have 0.5G RAM) so I suspect it depends what add-ons people use....

From the tests I have seen on the web, Firefox has a smaller memory footprint than Opera but only without plug-ins. I think some Firefox plug ins or add-ons are badly coded and don't free memory correctly. That will probably explain why Opera gives you less problems as there are no third party plug-ins when you use it as it does all you need.

The biggest problem I have is the constant updates... Firefox used to be (from the days of Netscape) the solution with KISS (keep it simple stupid) Now every other day you get a notice to upgrade and the plugins stop working because the third party plugin writers don't have time to catch up and so they toss out a quick fix

Adobe is the prime culprit using plugin container and like ArMap say sucks up memory

But lately I have had Filezilla issues that I can't seem to solve. Woks fine downloading but uploading bigger files it cuts out needing constant resume and then the data is garbled. Server says its not their end.

Tried different settings sometimes it works for a day then back to same old... Tried a different FTP client and that one cuts the files short ARGGGGGGGG

Quote

ETA: As I say, I don't have the memory problems with Firefox (I only have 0.5G RAM) so I suspect it depends what add-ons people use....

Plugins used to work by just activating them now they have to call them up every time you use them so if you open three tabs on YT, you will have three plugins running

Sure I could try Linux but I don't see that solving the issues I have right now. Windows has been fine till now so there has to be something that changed or snuck in under the wire and is lurking

Can't find anything all diagnostics come up clean but there has to be something going on that wasn't there a month ago

Sure I could try Linux but I don't see that solving the issues I have right now. Windows has been fine till now so there has to be something that changed or snuck in under the wire and is lurking

Can't find anything all diagnostics come up clean but there has to be something going on that wasn't there a month ago

I don't think it snuck in, Zorg; 'tis more likely something engineered into the system that has been lying dormant... in the last month now my issues have been with my ISP; atnt can't seem to keep my dsl online for more than 5 minutes out of every hour; been using s sprint aircard...

Starting this week, Internet Service Providers will start throttling connection speeds for customers alleged to be pirating copyright-protected materials.

Months after a controversial “six-strike” program was slated to be rolled out by the biggest ISPs in the United States, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) confirmed on Monday that the initiative has gone live.

The program, critiqued by Internet freedom activists and privacy advocates alike, will let ISPs take six steps of escalating severity in handling incidents where customers are believed to be illegally sharing material. Through the “graduate response” approach, suspected copyright criminals could be issued a series of warnings for illegally downloading protected content.

With the first strike caught by the CAS, a customer could be issued a warning. As strikes increase, however, “mitigation measures,” connection speed throttling and termination of service are all possible options.

“Practically speaking, this means our content partners will begin sending notices of alleged P2P [peer-to-peer] copyright infringement to ISPs, and the ISPs will begin forwarding those notices in the form of Copyright Alerts to consumers,” Jill Lesser of the Center for Copyright Information rights in a blog post on Monday.

“Consumers whose accounts have been used to share copyrighted content over P2P networks illegally (or without authority) will receive Alerts that are meant to educate rather than punish, and direct them to legal alternatives. And for those consumers who believe they received Alerts in error, an easy to use process will be in place for them to seek independent review of the Alerts they received,” she adds — neglecting to mention that the appeals process costs customers $35 a pop.

Previously, Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision Systems and other ISPs have signed onto the program, which was last scheduled to start in July 2012. Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights group Public Knowledge, told Wired last year that originally ISPs hoped to roll out the program earlier, but major protests against other restrictive Web policies, including attempts to pass certain legislation, left them to wait until the dust settled.

“SOPA and PIPA definitely had an impact. There was some concern, if they moved ahead too quickly, public opinion would be so raw, this would be caught in the whirlwind of bad PR,” Sohn told Wired.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that the official CSI six-strikes website lets users learn more about the history of copyright, but does so by re-directing them to a page managed by the Copyright Alliance — the same group that advocated heavily for last year’s failed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.

When the six-strikes program was first introduced, the White House issued an official statement saying it should “have a significant impact on reducing online piracy.”

(Phys.org) —Antivirus company Symantec has announced that it has discovered a new worm on the loose—one that attacks vulnerabilities in computer systems running Linux. Thus far, they report, the threat is minimal due to the worm only operating on x86 type computers. It could grow much worse, however, as the worm appears to be easily changed to allow for exploiting other types of hardware running Linux such as home routers, smart TVs or security cameras.

Symantec has named the worm Linux.Darlloz and reports that its main abilities at this time appear to be one of replication by taking advantage of a PHP vulnerability in systems running older versions of Linux. When it executes, it creates random IP addresses and attempts to locate pathways to other devices on the network. Those devices that aren't protected become infected as well, which in turn serve as aids in propagating the worm.

The German computer security and antivirus detection company G Data Security has alleged that the Russian government is behind the newly detected malware known as "Uroburos."

G Data bases its case for Russian government involvement on the complexity of the malware and the presence of Cyrillic words in the malware sample. G Data blog author "MN" points to file names, encryption keys, and behavior of Uroburos as evidence that the Russian government played a role in the creation of the malware.

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GData says that Uroburos is "one of the most advanced rootkits we have ever analyzed" and pegs its origins to 2011, the earliest year that its driver was compiled. It works on both x86 and x64 Windows computers.

According to G Data, it operates by commanding one infected computer with an Internet connection to infect other networked computers, even those without a direct connection to the Internet. Uroburos gathers whatever data it's been instructed to collect, then surreptitiously sends it back to the malware authors using the same method of hopping from machine to machine until it finds one with an Internet connection.

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

TURBINE was designed to make deploying malware much easier for the NSA’s hackers by reducing their role in overseeing its functions. The system would “relieve the user from needing to know/care about the details,” the NSA’s Technology Directorate notes in one secret document from 2009. “For example, a user should be able to ask for ‘all details about application X’ and not need to know how and where the application keeps files, registry entries, user application data, etc.”

In practice, this meant that TURBINE would automate crucial processes that previously had to be performed manually – including the configuration of the implants as well as surveillance collection, or “tasking,” of data from infected systems. But automating these processes was about much more than a simple technicality. The move represented a major tactical shift within the NSA that was expected to have a profound impact – allowing the agency to push forward into a new frontier of surveillance operations.

The ramifications are starkly illustrated in one undated top-secret NSA document, which describes how the agency planned for TURBINE to “increase the current capability to deploy and manage hundreds of Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) and Computer Network Attack (CNA) implants to potentially millions of implants.” (CNE mines intelligence from computers and networks; CNA seeks to disrupt, damage or destroy them.)

Eventually, the secret files indicate, the NSA’s plans for TURBINE came to fruition. The system has been operational in some capacity since at least July 2010, and its role has become increasingly central to NSA hacking operations.

Earlier reports based on the Snowden files indicate that the NSA has already deployed between 85,000 and 100,000 of its implants against computers and networks across the world, with plans to keep on scaling up those numbers.

The intelligence community’s top-secret “Black Budget” for 2013, obtained by Snowden, lists TURBINE as part of a broader NSA surveillance initiative named “Owning the Net.”

The agency sought $67.6 million in taxpayer funding for its Owning the Net program last year. Some of the money was earmarked for TURBINE, expanding the system to encompass “a wider variety” of networks and “enabling greater automation of computer network exploitation.”

This article goes on to describe various ways the NSA has been spying and different tools they have to infect and spy on you. Very good read. So in essence here we have AI managing the distribution of various types of spying applications that determines the most effective ways to infect, then that same AI is managing the collection and storage of this data without human oversight.... Very close to what SKYNET is all about.

U.S. lawmakers had a chance to pose questions to the director of the National Security Agency on Wednesday but declined to ask him about reports that the agency plans to install malware on millions of computers.

General Keith Alexander did not volunteer information about the reported NSA program to deploy tens of thousands of copies of surveillance malware on computers and networking devices around the world.

Committee members didn’t ask him about it, either. Instead, committee members praised the soon-to-retire Alexander for his years of service at the NSA and Cyber Command. “A grateful nation salutes you,” said Representative Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat.

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Alexander’s main focus at the hearing was to advocate for legislation that would allow U.S. businesses to share cyberthreat information with Cyber Command and other government agencies. He called on Congress to pass legislation that would protect businesses from lawsuits if they accidentally overshare information.

“We have to have a way to understand when Wall Street is under attack,” Alexander said. “Right now, we get it after the fact. We get called up, it’s not real time, and as a consequence, we can’t defend them.”

The government and businesses need to be able to share cyberthreat information “at network speed,” he said.

US blasts Europe’s plan for anti-snooping network as 'unfair advantage'

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US officials on Friday slammed plans to construct an EU-centric communication system, designed to prevent emails and phone calls from being swept up by the NSA, warning that such a move is a violation of trade laws.

Calling Europe’s proposal to build its own integrated communication system “draconian,” the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said American tech companies, which are worth an estimated $8 trillion per year, would take a financial hit if Brussels gives the initiative the green light.

"Recent proposals from countries within the European Union to create a Europe-only electronic network (dubbed a 'Schengen cloud' by advocates) or to create national-only electronic networks could potentially lead to effective exclusion or discrimination against foreign service suppliers that are directly offering network services, or dependent on them," the USTR said in its annual report.

I've read that type document before on cryptome.the thing is we humans are still ahead of the curve.not all the humans though.I always thought the middle eastern uprisings were aided by twitter.That's why I question the Bundy situation.the internet played in our favor.that's rare.I believe the cell tower blackout was just system overload.the antennas and systems aren't designed to support a thousand people.more like twenty per side.probably only two towers in that whole area.I've never seen such manipulation of the msm as I've seen in the last month.

A private server startup has raised over $1 million in less than an hour and a half, breaking the crowdfunding record.

German-based Protonet's funding target of €100,000 was surpassed within minutes of going live and it took just 89 minutes to receive $1m on German crowdfunding site Seedmatch. It currently stands close to €1.2m through donations from over 750 investors.

The fastest crowdfunding campaign to reach $1m before Protonet was the Kickstarter for the Veronica Mars movie, which reached the target in just over four hours.

Wary of NSA

Revelations about mass surveillance that broke last year through former National Security Agency (NSA) contract worker Edward Sowden have resulted in increased privacy concerns, particularly in Germany.

Through the NSA leaks it was revealed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had her mobile phone tapped by the US intelligence agency.

Merkel has since called for a "European internet" that bypasses American servers and prevents the NSA from snooping on individuals and businesses.

"Protonet offers a simple solution for small and medium businesses," Protonet's website explains. "Protonet's mini server combines basic capabilities with the advantages of local hardware: Scalability, high storage capacity and control.

"We offer location-independent data access, a thought-through social collaboration platform and all this with no necessary maintenance and installation."

Protonet currently comes in three incarnations - Carla, Carlita and Maya - with prices ranging from €1,200 to €4,700.

MUNICH — It didn't take an Edward Snowden to figure out that American espionage service providers had access to confidential information about German citizens. It's been known for years that the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) works for American secret services.

It's also known that a former CSC subsidiary was involved in the abduction of German citizen Khaled el-Masri, who was turned over to the CIA and subjected to abuse and degradation before the agency finally admitted his arrest and torture were a mistake.

Nevertheless, German CSC subsidiaries have in past years received more than 100 contracts from state and federal governments in Germany, as Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcaster NDR reported last fall. The operative rule at the time was that only companies that were found guilty of crimes could be excluded from public contracts. So far, no CSC employee has been prosecuted for the abduction of el-Masri. Per se, working for the U.S. intel agencies is not punishable. So Germany's federal government tied its own hands over the issue.

But according to research conducted by NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany's black-red "grand coalition" government has now tightened the rules for awarding sensitive public IT contracts. In cases of doubt, suspicious companies will now be excluded from such contracts. And companies now have to sign documents to the effect that no contracts or laws oblige them — nor can they be coerced — to pass on confidential data to foreign secret services or security authorities.

A week ago, in retaliation to the inane charges lobbed by the US accusing 5 Chinese army officials of spying on US companies (when the NSA spying scandal on, well, everyone refuses to leave the front pages), China announced it would ban the use of Windows 8 on government computers (considering the quality of Windows 8, this is likely a decision government computers would have taken on their own regardless). Today, China has expanded its list of sanctioned companies from Microsoft to include IBM as well, following a Bloomberg report that the Chinese government is pushing domestic banks to "remove high-end servers made by International Business Machines Corp. and replace them with a local brand."

Why is MSFT and now IBM sowing the seeds of the US government's stupidity and failed attempts to distract from its own spying scandals? We don't know. Here is what we do know:

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Government agencies, including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, are reviewing whether Chinese commercial banks’ reliance on IBM servers compromises the country’s financial security, said the four people, who asked not to be identified because the review hasn’t been made public.

The review fits a broader pattern of retaliation after American prosecutors indicted five Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking into the computers of U.S. companies and stealing secrets. Last week, China’s government said it will vet technology companies operating in the country, while the Financial Times reported May 25 that China ordered state-owned companies to cut ties with U.S. consulting firms.

Harriet Ip, a Singapore-based spokeswoman for IBM, referred questions to IBM in the U.S. Jeffrey Cross, a Somers, New York-based spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment outside U.S. business hours.

“Security trumps everything,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based consultant to technology companies. “China doesn’t need the U.S. companies in the way it did for the last few decades.”

Perhaps somewhat ironically, IBM sold its low-end server business to Lenovo, itself a part of IBM once upon a time, several months ago for $2.3 billion.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Three Google Inc researchers have uncovered a security bug in widely used web encryption technology that they say could allow hackers to take over accounts for email, banking and other services in what they have dubbed a "Poodle" attack.

The discovery of "Poodle," which stands for Padding Oracle On Downloaded Legacy Encryption, prompted makers of web browsers and server software to advise users on Tuesday to disable use of the source of the security bug: an 18-year old encryption standard known as SSL 3.0.

It was the third time this year that researchers have uncovered a vulnerability in widely used web technology, following April's "Heartbleed" bug in OpenSSL and last month's "Shellshock" bug in a piece of Unix software known as Bash.

Security experts said that hackers could steal browser "cookies" in "Poodle" attacks, potentially taking control of email, banking and social networking accounts. Even so, experts said the threat was not as serious as the two prior bugs.

"If Shellshock and Heartbleed were Threat Level 10, then Poodle is more like a 5 or a 6," said Tal Klein, vice president with cloud security firm Adallom.

The threat was disclosed in a research paper published on the website of the OpenSSL Project, which develops the most widely used type of SSL encryption software.

As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.